OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Friday 9.45pm.
SEVERAL hundred supporters of the radical Moslem organisation Qibla on Friday brought the centre of Cape Town to a standstill with an anti-Zionist march, but avoided a feared clash with police.
The march, which police had vowed to stop, went ahead after Qibla won an urgent High Court interdict giving it permission to take to the streets for an Al-Quds Day protest against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
The court overturned a decision by the city council, taken on the strength of police testimony that radical Moslem groups had declared war on the authorities, to ban the march.
The order was granted on condition that protesters revise plans to stop outside the United States embassy here where they ritually burn flags on Al-Quds day, the last Friday in the holy month of Ramadan.
Police, seething after the assassination late Thursday of a detective investigating acts of violence allegedly carried out by Moslem vigilantes, maintained tight security throughout the march.
Armoured vehicles and armed personnel escorted the procession past the Israeli embassy and parliament, the scene of a bitter clash with Moslems protesting against visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair last week.
The march came days after the government launched a campaign to curb urban terrorism in Western Cape.
The province is reeling after 79 bomb attacks in the past year, which police believe are partly the work of Moslem radicals.
The government on Friday also banned the paramilitary training of anyone except government security forces and legitimate security companies, a move aimed in part at armed Moslem vigilante groups. The police raided the homes of several members of vigilante group People Against Gangsterism and Drugs. — AFP